


I'll be Waiting by the Radio

by lionessvalenti



Category: Grease: Live
Genre: 1960s, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 03:51:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8874667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: Ten years later, Doody runs into Danny at a club in the city.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kissoffools](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissoffools/gifts).



When Doody left Rydell, he left the name Doody behind him. It was a silly nickname meant for a handful of people. It didn't make sense anywhere else. No one had called him that in ten years.

But when he saw Danny Zuko leaning against the wall of the club, smoking a cigarette, _Doody_ came rushing back. It fit him like a glove.

Danny looked like a time capsule. His face hadn't changed at all. His clothes weren't even so far removed for 1959: jeans, a tee shirt, but a worn out looking brown leather jacket.

It would have been nothing. It _should_ have been nothing, but the club in question changed everything. Of course, not everyone who went there was gay. It wouldn't have even been safe, even during the sexual revolution happening around him. Danny wasn't, of course. Gay. Doody knew that, but then again, Danny was standing next to a guy, smiling, and the guy had his hand resting comfortably on Danny's shoulder.

Doody turned around and left.

* * *

It was stupid, Doody decided the next day. He was a grown man, and if Danny was there, then Doody shouldn't have been embarrassed to be there. And maybe, when he returning the following Saturday, Danny wouldn't be there at all.

Except he was.

This time, Danny was alone, standing at the bar. Same leather jacket. This time, Doody went up to him.

"Danny?"

"Doody?" He grinned and grabbed Doody by the shoulder, pulling him into a quick hug. "How long has it been? I never thought I'd -- is this your scene?"

"Yeah," Doody replied, a little dazed from the flash of contact and the whiff of Danny's cologne mixed with cigarette smoke. He knew was _your scene_ meant. He knew Danny was asking if he was gay. Why even try to hide it? They were here. "Is it yours?"

Danny brought his shoulders up, like he did when he was embarrassed. "Nah, I'm just uh, I'm a tourist." He grinned and shook Doody's shoulder. "Let me buy you a drink, man. What have you been doing?"

How do you sum up ten years? "College. Work. What are you doing these days?"

Danny signaled the bartender and ordered a couple of beers. He turned back to Doody. "I'm working down at a garage on eighteenth. It's not bad work. It pays the bills."

"And you've got the skills," Doody said. "Cars aren't like they used to be."

"No way," Danny said. "But I'm not doing too much fun stuff anymore. It's mostly oil changes for rich guys who can't do it themselves."

"You see any of the old crowd?" Doody asked as he took a drink from his beer.

Danny shook his head. "Nah. They're probably married with kids and their real jobs."

"Working at a garage is a real job."

"No, owning a garage is a real job." Danny smiled a little bit. "That's what I want to do. I've been taking business classes, night classes, you know? In a couple of years, I think Mike -- the owner -- I think he'll sell me the garage."

"That's really cool, man." Doody took Danny's arm in his hand. "So you want to settle down here?"

"If it works out," Danny replied. He took a swig of his beer and glanced down at Doody's hand, still on his arm. "You want to get out of here? Go somewhere else?"

"I live four blocks down," Doody said before he even realized the words were out of his mouth. Danny didn't mean his placed, his cramped little studio where his bed served as a couch and a dinner table. He was talking about a coffee shop or a diner.

But Danny nodded. "Perfect."

* * *

"They don't call you Doody anymore, do they?" Danny asked. The afternoon's downpour had turned into a light rain, and it was chilly against the autumn wind. He grabbed a cigarette out of his pack and offered Doody one.

Doody shook his head, both at the question and the offer. "Not really. It makes sense when you do it."

"I don't--" Danny laughed as he shoved the back in his jeans pocket. "I don't even know your real name."

"Tony. Everyone these days calls me Tony."

"Tony," Danny repeated, as if trying it out. He laughed again. "You're right, it's weird."

Doody chuckled, but it faded just as quickly as they slowed naturally in front of an store with a front window full of color televisions, each one showing war footage.

"Were you drafted?" Doody asked. He couldn't quite tear his eyes away from the screens, but he could see Danny shake his head from the corner of his eye.

"You?"

"Right out of college, but I couldn't pass the physical." Doody looked away from the TV and up at Danny's face. "I've got bad knees. Something about the cartilage."

"And you can't see worth shit," Danny added, bumping his shoulder against Doody. "I've seen through those glasses before."

Doody smiled. He remembered that day, when Sonny was yukking it up and grabbed Doody's glasses, protests falling on deaf ears, and they passed the glasses around, and all laughed at how bad Doody's vision was. It was Danny who snatched up the glasses, held them up to his eyes for a second, and then gave them back to Doody.

"Were you scared?" Danny asked. "When you got the letter?"

Smile fading, Doody nodded. He could still remember the way the envelope felt under his fingers as he opened it, knowing what was inside. "Terrified," he said. There had never been relief like being told he couldn't go to war.

"I lost three of my guys at the garage to the draft," Danny said softly. "One of them went to Canada, but the other two are over there."

"C'mon," Doody said, grabbing Danny's arm. "Let's get out of the rain."

As if on cue, a van drove by, hitting the gutter and splashing water up onto the sidewalk. Doody was mostly out of the damage, but Danny got soaked from head to toe.

"Asshole!" Danny shouted at the van, but it was already out of range. He picked at his shirt, suddenly suctioned to his stomach. "I should go home and get cleaned up."

"I'm up on the corner," Doody said. "I've got a shower and clean clothes."

Danny gave him a look that Doody couldn't quite place. Maybe he was surprised by the boldness. Or he wasn't sure the intention of an admitted gay telling him to take a shower. But finally, he said, "Yeah, you're right."

They crossed the street in silence, and walked up the narrow staircase to the third floor. Doody fumbled with his keys before opening the door. "It's not much," he warned before they stepped inside.

"The city's expensive," Danny said, looking around at the half size fridge and a hot plate instead of a stove. "I live across the river for a place not much bigger than this. It does have a bedroom, at least."

Doody laughed. "The, uh, the shower's in there. And there's towel. I'll get you some sweats or something. Just leave your clothes there by the radiator. They'll dry faster."

"Thanks." Danny peeled off his shirt to reveal his pale, lean torso. He still had that defined runner's body, nothing lost to time. Doody, of course, had never _studied_ Danny's body. He simply caught glances, like anyone did in locker rooms, but he remembered.

The only new thing was across the right side of Danny's ribcage, a three inch tattoo reading _Sandy_.

"Nice ink," Doody said.

Danny twisted a little bit to glance down at the tattoo. He grinned up at Doody. "Never get a chick's name tattooed on you. Do it and all you get is a lifetime of questions."

Doody took that as a cue not to ask what happened with Sandy. Instead, he took off his jacket and hung it up on one of the hooks he'd installed when he moved in and didn't even have a closet. When he looked back, Danny had kicked off his boots and was disappearing into the bathroom.

After thinking about Danny for a week, Doody may have entertained the occasional thought about what would happen if Danny ended up in his apartment. They were fleeting. He'd never had thoughts like that about Danny, or any of the guys, when he was in high school. He'd spent most of high school trying his best to be cool, and being a queer wasn't cool.

College had been different, but the fear of being found out kept him from developing anything real, so he kept to himself. The city had been even better. There were communities. He wasn't alone, and he didn't have to be. Except for right now, sitting on his bed, hands sweating, with Danny Zuko naked in his shower. 

Danny stepped out of the bathroom, wearing only a towel and his tattoo. 

"Clothes," Doody said, jumping up from the bed. "I was going to get you something to wear."

"Doody," Danny took ahold of Doody's arm, keeping him from moving too far from the bed. "Don't worry about it," he said, his voice dropping with each syllable. He leaned in slowly and kissed Doody on the mouth.

Doody grabbed onto Danny to keep himself upright. Danny's skin was warm and damp from the shower. His mouth was hot, and god, all those girls at Rydell weren't wrong.

"Danny," Doody breathed as they parted. "You -- is this what you meant by tourist?"

With a smirk, Danny said, "I've been trying out new things. When I saw you last week--"

"You saw me?"

"I thought when you left, you thought I was, you know, with that guy. I mean, I was, but... I can't be at the garage, but I couldn't stop thinking and I... try not to be a fake. I faked all through high school. I don't do that anymore."

"Me either," Doody said, and he pulled Danny into the bed.

* * *

"You mind?" Danny asked, digging a pack of cigarettes out of his jeans pocket. He tossed the jeans back on the floor by the radiator.

"Go ahead," Doody replied. Dazed and lightheaded, he would have agreed to just about anything Danny said. A cigarette was the least of his concerns. He ran his hand down Danny's chest, his thumb brushing across the tattoo. "What happened to Sandy? You don't have to talk about it, but..."

Danny took a long drag of the cigarette. "Last I heard, she'd moved back to Utah to live with her aunt, but that was six years ago. We were together for a long time, we were... I asked her to marry me."

"She said no?"

"She said yes. She was pregnant."

Doody remembered the last day of school, the way Sandy had changed overnight. It was hard to believe she'd really changed that much. But then again, Danny changed for her, too. Or maybe it was the real Danny Sandy had liked all along.

"We were -- it was okay. Her parents wanted to kill me. They..." Danny trailed off with a humorless chuckle. "But -- right after we got engaged, she lost the baby, and everything went to shit. She was a mess, I was... I didn't know how to help her, you know?"

Doody nodded, but he didn't know. He had no way of knowing, but he knew his heart was breaking for Danny and Sandy both. In another world, he and Danny weren't there, but Danny was somewhere else with a kid and with Sandy. Where, on that last day of school, they all thought they would be, maybe with Kenickie and Rizzo next door, and Frenchie working on the local salon. But time wasn't so kind.

"It didn't last too long after that," Danny said. "We shoulda been able to... it didn't work out, that's all."

"I'm sorry," Doody said. He slid his hand up to rest on Danny's chest and then gently pressed a kiss to the warm skin of his neck. "But the tattoo's not so bad. Sandy was important. It might not have worked out, but you have a lasting reminder of what was good."

Danny glanced down at him and smiled, with sadness still in his eyes. "You were always different from the other guys. And not just -- you know, this. You're easy to talk to. If we ever gave you a chance."

"So were you, different. You stood out from everyone else at school. It's not a surprise you were the coolest guy there. Everyone knew who you for a reason, Danny. No one knew who I was."

"Probably because we gave you the worst nickname in the world," Danny said with a laugh. "Sorry about that. Who started it? Kenickie?"

"I don't know, but... I liked being Doody. I still do."

"You still playing guitar?" Danny asked.

"Oh. Yeah, kind of. I'm still just playing other people's songs. I don't write or anything. It's a hobby."

"It's more than I can do." Danny slung his free arm around Doody and pulled him closer. "You doing something tomorrow?"

Doody shook his head. 

"Do you want to come with me?"

It was a strange question, Doody wondered, but it didn't matter where Danny wanted to go. Going with Danny was all Doody had ever really wanted. This is what he'd been waiting for, and he hadn't even known it. He hesitated for only a second before he pressed a kiss softly to Danny's mouth.

"Yes."


End file.
